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SPEECH 



OF 



Prof. Francis L. Patton, DD., LLD, 

PRESIDENT-ELECT OF PRINCETON COLLEGE 
AT THE 

ANNUAL DINNER 

OF 

The Princeton Glut) of New York. 

MARCH 15, 1888. 




PRINTED FOR THE CLUB. 



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In introducing the President-elect, Dr. van Dyke, President 
of the Club, said, in part : 

There were nine colleges in this country before the Revolu- 
tion ; four of them are represented here to-night. Among them 
all none has rendered a more constant and loy^l service to our 
national life than Princeton : nor has she ever done a better 
thing for the Republic than to bring, as we confidently hope and 
expect, a new and worthy recruit to its citizenship, a philosopher, 
(and therefore a patriot), a peer of Witherspoon and McCosh. 

Princeton stands on middle ground, geographically, religiously 
and educationally, and, I think, it is safe to say that her alumni 
want her to hold that position. They don't want her to under- 
take either a radical revolution or a narrow re-action into a 
Presbyterian boarding-school. 

There has been, of late, a little too much unrest and fidgeti- 
ness and irresponsible experimenting among the colleges. It is 
good to have a few where the atmosphere is more serene, where 
the foundations are regarded as fixed, and where a man can send 
his sons, not to be experimented upon, but to be trained to think 
clearly and act rightly. Princeton has always held that this can 
best be done in a college which is distinctly Christian, and quite as 
distinctly non-sectarian, and where the classics, philosophy and 



mathematics are regarded as essential to a liberal education. 
That is the sum total of her conservatism, — 

" Not clinging to some ancient saw, 
Not mastered by some modern term, 
Not swift nor slow to change, but firm " — 

that is Princeton, our Alma Mater, and, we trust, the Alma 
Mater of our sons. 

Now, there is one man here to-night to whom all this desire 
and this hope makes us turn with the warmest feelings, — the 
man charged with a double task and equal, as we believe, to both. 
One task is of his own choice, or perhaps he was predestined to 
it, namely, the task of showing "the Oughtness of Metaphysics." 
The other task touches us more closely, it has been imposed 
upon him by that power which ranks next to predestination, 
namely, the Board of Trustees, which is the task of making 
Princeton the great University of the Middle States. In this 
task, sir, you will get cart-loads of advice. We have not a word 
of it for you to-night, but only a cordial, sincere, unanimous 
welcome for our President-elect, Francis L. Patton. 

Professor Francis L. Patton, spoke as follows : 

I was told the other day that a gentleman in this city, distin- 
guished in many ways, but particularly distinguished as an after- 
dinner speaker (I will not mention his name, though I may take 
the liberty to remark that many of us, I am very sure, would 
be glad to see him made the next President of the United 
States), said that the coming President of an American College 
must be possessed of two qualifications; he must be able to 
live in a sleeping-car and partake with impunity of the regula- 
tion pastry of the railroad station. As this is the first time I have 
ever ventured to testify in my own behalf, I may be allowed to say, 
that severe as these conditions seem to be I am ready to meet them. 
(Cheers.) The second qualification I am disposed to construe with 



some degree of latitude, and suppose that among the gastronomic 
feats that will be imposed upon me, an appreciative enjoyment of 
the delightful hospitality of the Princeton Club will most cer- 
tainly be included. 

There is, however, a third qualification, respecting which I 
can only confess my shortcoming : I do not know how to make an 
after-dinner speech. This is not from inattention to the subject 
or any indifference on my part. I read the papers and watch 
eagerly for everything that falls from the lips of the few post- 
prandial orators whom I fain would take as my models. I have 
even asked Dr. van Dyke to give me a few useful hints, but with 
that wise caution, which leads a man, when he has a good thing, 
to hold on to it, he evaded my inquiry, or rather, disguised his 
fiat refusal with a compliment. Then I thought, perhaps, that I 
might send over to some of my clerical brethren and ask them to 
lend me a sermon for the occasion, for I have been told that after 
all the main thing in an after-dinner speech is to be amusing. 
(Laughter.) But the recent storm has cut me off from all com- 
munication with my friends, and I appear before you to-night 
dependent entirely upon my own resources. (Applause.) In this 
respect it is quite possible I may differ with some who may follow 
me, but it is enough to explain the fact that my speech will be a 
poor one. 

Mr. Lecky says that the world is governed by its ideals, and 
as the ideal is very apt to be a very different thing from the real, 
this is probably the last chance I shall ever have of speaking on 
the American college, unhampered by the conditions of fact. 

I do not mind saying here to you, that, in my judgment, the head 
of an American college ought to be an American in spirit, and that 
the college itself ought to be administered in accordance with the 
exigencies of our specific American life. I have been looking at 
the history of our college in this regard and with this object in 
mind. There was Witherspoon, for example, an American in a 
sense, and, I believe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
but I think it would have been far wiser for him to have been 
born in this country. It would have strengthened his influence 
and given him power with the Alumni. (Laughter.) Then there 
is Dr. McCosh, who has been with us so long that we have come 
to regard him as one of ourselves, but it is pretty generally under- 



stood that he was born in the old country. I am very glad to 
know that nobody ever ventured to say that I was born in the 
old country. Why, it is only a paltry matter of six hundred 
miles that kept me from being born in North Carolina, and 
even this youthful folly I have endeavored to atone for by taking 
very precious care that each of my six sons should be born under 
the stars and stripes. (Cheers.) I call them my collected works, 
by the way, when I get them all together, and as they happen to be 
British by descent and American by birth, I have always flattered 
myself that in this way I had solved the problem of international 
copyright. My friend, Dr. van Dyke, seems to have been 
cognizant of these facts, because I notice he forgot to send me a 
copy of his admirable sermon on Our National Sin of Literary 
Piracy. But, gentlemen, it is my nature to find comfort in dis- 
aster and, I think that possibly there is some advantage in having 
been treated as an alien. " Forsan et haec oliin memlnisse juvabit^'' 
" Memory even of this may bring joy in the distant years," as Sir 
John Bowen has beautifully rendered it. For it is manifest that 
there is more joy among the Alumni over the one President who 
has been naturalized than over the ninety-and-nine that needed no 
naturalization ; (applause) and I have about come to the conclu- 
sion that I can very well afford to waive my claim to be among 
the ninety-and-nine. Yes, I am very free to say, that I think the 
head of an American college should be an American in spirit. We 
have our own problems to solve, our own questions to deal with ; 
and the precedents of the old world cannot be the norm of the 
new. I think that it is the duty of the head of such a college 
to impress it upon those who are committed to his charge, 
that the franchises that have been bought with blood and bar- 
gained for by the stern arbitration of the sword, are a precious 
inheritance; that they are not seized of them in fee simple, but 
that it is their bounden duty to hand them down as an unincum- 
bered estate to their children and their children's children. 
(Cheers.) If this is what you mean by being an American, I wish 
you to understand that I am an American through and through, 
second to none in my loyalty for your institutions and my love for 
the people among whom all the years of my manhood have been 
spent. (Applause.) And more than that, I believe that the 
American university must be conducted along the lines of his- 



toric continuity and with reference to the special exigencies of 
our own people. There are some good things in Oxford, in Paris, 
in Edinburgh and in Berlin, but the typical American university 
will not be a simple imitation of any of these. Better a common 
country church than a clay model of Cologne Cathedral. Better 
a thousand times for us a roomy American college than a feeble 
German university. (Applause.) 

And I shall not shrink from saying further, that we must keep 
Princeton a Christian college. It has somehow leaked out that 
I am a Presbyterian. (Laughter.) I have heard the same thing 
said of our President, Dr. van Dyke, and it is said that even Dr. 
Hall has very strong preferences in the same direction. I do 
not know how these gentlemen reply to this allegation, but I am 
accustomed to enter a special plea of confession and avoidance, 
to admit the fact, but to deny that it is attended with any quasU 
criminal consequences; for there is no church broader in her 
catholicity, and I say it deliberately, than the one I belong to, and 
there is no church that has done more for learning or taken a 
deeper interest in the cause of higher education. But Princeton 
is too big to be sectarian (Applause.) I want you to understand 
that. We mean to administer the affairs of this college along the 
lines of our common Christianity, but we mean, likewise, to keep 
the confidence of the religious public if we can ; we mean, that is 
to say, that when an Episcopalian comes to us and is under the 
supervision of his rector on Sunday, he shall not hear a philoso- 
phy taught him on Monday that undermines his faith in God. 
We mean that he shall have the universe opened to his view and 
that he shall deal with its facts and problems of life under 
theistic conceptions ; this is something more than daily prayers 
in chapel, though we shall have them, too. 

The management of Princeton College is a great trust, if I 
may say so without being misunderstood (laughter), and I hope it 
is unnecessary for me to say, that you will find me conservative 
enough, but that you will find me likewise a believer in a very 
progressive policy. (Applause.) We need more students in the 
first place. Well, we must trust to the Alumni for that. 
(Laughter.) We must address ourselves to the new conditions 
of life which are sure to come, and we may just as well get rid 
now as at any other time of the idea that a university means 



simply a place for special research, or an aggregation ot colleges, 
or a co-ordination of faculties or a series of professional schools. 
We shall have to deal mainly with under-graduates. We do not 
intend to make artists or attorneys, but we do mean to widen the 
area of graduate study ; we mean to encourage special investi- 
gation ; we mean to add department after department just as 
fast as we can do it. There are fields already ripe to the harvest, 
and Princeton must put in the sickle pretty soon or be content to 
be a gleaner by and by. Now, all this means money. We cannot 
do this unless we have larger endowments. I do not know what 
your ideas of a college president are, gentlemen, but I desire to 
say a word upon this subject, because I do not wish you to be 
disappointed in me. If the trustees have elected me with the 
idea that I feed upon patristic Greek in the forenoon and scho- 
lastic Latin in the afternoon, and by a special effort may be able 
to brace up for a baccalaureate sermon once a year, I am very 
sorry that they have elected me, because I believe that a college 
president ought to know an interest-coupon from a railway-ticket 
(laughter and applause), and that he ought to be able to under- 
stand a balance-sheet as well as to grade an examination-paper. 
(Applause.) I think I shall take very considerable interest in the 
finances of Princeton College, and, I believe, what is more, that 
the money is going to come. (Applause.) I am pretty sure that 
there are friends enough who will see to it that Princeton shall 
come behind Yale in no gift. (Cheers.) 

But whether the money come or not I have invested my life in 
this institution, I have put myself at the service of this college and 
I want — and I somehow have the feeling, that I am going to get — 
the unhesitating support of the Alumni of New York. (Applause.) 

And then there is another thing I want to say, and that is, that 
more and more Princeton must become the rallying-point of broad 
and generous sympathies. This means, that we must recognize, 
so far as they are good, all the elements that enter into our diver- 
sified university life. I have no opinion to give upon the ques- 
tion as to what relation the Alumni shall sustain to the manage- 
ment of college affairs, but I am pretty clear in one conviction 
and that is, that we must not treat the Alumni as a lot of cus- 
tomers who have bought learning at our shop. The solidarity of 
university life must be conserved and perpetuated beyond the 



years of graduation ; and it is very natural that the graduates 
should feel that if their interest in their Alma Mater is to be 
enlisted, they ought to have something to do, because it is a law of 
nature that when an organism has no function it tends to atrophy. 
(Applause.) I think you must recognize, moreover, what some 
people do not perhaps understand, to wit, that there are a great 
many students who go to college with no intention of being either 
very hard students or very great scholars — that generalization has 
been forced upon me by a pretty large induction of facts. I am 
not prepared to say that it is better to have gone and loafed than 
never to have gone at all, but I do believe in the genius loci ; and 
I sympathize with Sir Joshua Reynolds when he says, that there 
is around every seminary of learning, an atmosphere of floating 
knowledge where every one can imbibe something peculiar to his 
own original conceptions. (Applause.) And to change the sub- 
ject rather abruptly, I confess that if the evils that are alleged to 
exist in regard to inter-collegiate contests can be checked or 
abated, I can well believe that out of these brawny contests some 
of the very best elements of manhood may emerge. (Loud 
applause.) 

I think we must do better work with our best men than we 
have done ; and that without raising the minimum of requirement 
for any we must raise the maximum of possibility for some. That 
is to say — though I express myself with great modesty here and do 
not commit myself or commit anybody else — I think it is not un- 
likely that in addition to the distinction between elective and re- 
quired studies, there may come a time when in order to secure the 
best results, we shall have to recognize the distinction between 
" pass " and " honor " work. You see now what all this points 
to. We are running close-hauled with the starboard tacks aboard, 
and the university head-lands are just under the port bow. If 
the wind backs we will have to beat up, if it hauls, then we shall 
ease the sheet and sail free, but we will get there anyhow in either 
case. 

Mr. Augustine Birrele says, in his charming way, that a man 
might live like a gentleman for a twelve-month on Hazlitt's ideas. 
I am pretty sure that we all feel that our share of interest on Dr. 
McCosh's mental capital gives us a very respectable philosophical 
competency. He has been the teacher of us all, and although I 



never sat in his class-room, I have read his books quite as care- 
fully as many of you. (Laughter.) 

I shall enter upon the work of administering the affairs of 
Princeton College in Dr. McCosh's spirit. (Applause.) I shall 
probably have my own notions, and they may be right or wrong; 
I may turn out to be a very poor architect, but I give you 
warning that I am not willing to be installed simply as a care- 
taker. I look for progress and growth ; but one thing I will say : 
no man shall ever take the crown from Dr. McCosh's head with 
my consent. (Applause.) If it shall be my privilege to witness the 
growing glory of Princeton through a succession of years, and 
from time to time conduct some distinguished visitor across our 
campus and through our halls ; I promise you, gentlemen, that 
when I shall have pointed to the names of fifty Fellows on the 
catalogue, all pursuing special topics of investigation ; when I shall 
have shown him our new dormitories, our new Gymnasium and 
our new Commencement Hall ; when I shall have introduced 
him to those gentlemen who, in addition to the men that are now 
the glory of Princeton, will then be adding to her fame in poetry, 
in criticism, in history, in pure science, in pure philosophy, in 
comparative philology, in political economy, in historical and 
philosophical jurisprudence, I will take him to the place where 
Dr. McCosh's portrait hangs and I will say to him : He is the 
inspiration of it all. (Cheers and prolonged applause.) 




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